What is holding up the front of the jet? I see the two jacks for the mains but it appears the nose jack is setting off to the side. Maybe I'm missing something perspective wise here but it looks to me like the nose is levitating off the ground! The only explanation I can think of would be the tail has been tied to the hangar floor, but that just doesn't sound right either. Thanks in advance.

Most Boeing acft, including this 727, are jacked with 2 mains and a tail jack. The nose jack you see off to the side is just for stabilization. This stabilization jack is put in place after the acft is jacked, and removed before dejacking.

Wow, thanks Sfomb67, that totally goes against my idea of what makes sense! I didn't believe it until I looked it up in our maintenance manuals. Looks to me like it should fall over on its nose. Thanks for the quick reply and for pointing me in the right direction.

Quoting Sfomb67 (Reply 2):The nose jack you see off to the side is just for stabilization.

Thats correct.Very similiar to the B737.The nose Fuselage jack is for stablization & placed below the jackpad on the RH side of the Aircraft[ Lh on the Pic].
However I feel the Nose gear jack should have been touching the Nose jack pad & not such a distance away.
regds
MEL

It seems to be a Boeing tradition. The main jacking points on the 747, 767 and 777 are located under the forward spar of the wing at the root. The C of G is aft of the main jack points and thus, the "tripod" of jacks formed by the main and tail jacks can support the entire aircraft off the ground (weight distribution and limits apply of course).

The 747 has five additional stabilisation jack points, one at the nose, and two points along the span of each wing. IIRC, the Airbus arrangement has the two main jack points located on the rear spar, which make a stable triangle with the nose jack. What is amazing with this arrangement is how far away from the root that the main jack points are, as they are located outboard of the main landing gear. The bending moment on the wing must be huge!

With the pix of this 727 enlarged, I noticed 2 objects in the back of the nose W/W, that I don't recognize. They look like a pair of 2x6's attached to the belly skin and holding the strut doors closed. Anybody know what these are for?

Are you refering to the curved scoop that would be in detail "C"? It looks like they're on the upper/inside surface of the door. The things I'm refering to, could be scoops, but they look like they're attached to the lower side of the aft strut doors, and it looks like they'd interfere with the closing of the forward doors.